


The Constellations in Your Eyes

by lottienaut



Series: Deep Space Gigantism [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding Moments, But only if you squint, M/M, Pining, Pre-Slash, mentions of Lance's family - Freeform, very vague hints of Galra!Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7701748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lottienaut/pseuds/lottienaut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith can't sleep and, as it turns out, neither can Lance. They meet on the observation deck of the Castle of Lions and have a revealing conversation. </p><p>This is a scene that happens before the events of What Lies Beneath, but it can be read as a stand-alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Constellations in Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This scene was mentioned in chapter two of What Lies Beneath and I kind of wanted to expand on it. So please have this while I work on chapter 3.

For a moment, when Keith first opens his eyes, he doesn’t know where he is. Panic surges through him and he pushes himself to sit up, his breath coming in quick, shallow gulps. Then, a few seconds later, he recognizes the familiar darkness of his room in the Castle of Lions and he takes a moment to let his shoulders relax.

This used to happen to him more often when they’d first started living in the castle, back when they’d still been struggling to form Voltron. He’d wake up and wonder why he wasn’t laying on the couch in his shack and his hands would scramble for the knife under his pillow, the familiar weight a comfort. Then he’d realize where he was, how far away that was from his little shack in the desert, the only place that ever really felt like his own.

After a few moments Keith’s eyes start to adjust and he makes out the sparse room around him. The only thing distinguishing it from the other rooms in the castle are the clothes hanging in his closet.  It will be impossible to get back to sleep, he knows from experience. Keith never remembers his dreams, but they always leave him with a racing heart that refuses to settle. His mind will only show him quick flashes of images, bright lights and splashes of color, voices with no context, calling to him. It’s always been like this, ever since he was a kid. He’s used to it now, but he thinks maybe it’s gotten worse ever since he left Earth. Sometimes he feels like he might be getting closer to those far away voice.

He doesn’t bother with socks or shoes, just slips out the door and lets the cold metal floor against his bare feet wake him up fully. The training deck will be empty and usually that would be where he’d go. Exhausting himself is the only way to chase away the thoughts the dreams bring. But tonight he wants to see the stars.

The halls are empty and quiet at night—or as close to night as they’ll get this far out in space. Lights flare to life, guiding his way forward the way they did the first time they’d all entered the castle as Keith takes his time walking towards the observation deck.

When he reaches his destination he almost doesn’t see the other person in the room. Lance is half hidden behind Allura’s control panel, his knees drawn up to his chest as he looks out on the holographic display of the universe projected by the castle. There’s a mass of red dots that Keith knows to be distress beacons taking up roughly a quarter of the room and Lance has turned his head to stare at them.

Keith doesn’t know what makes him step further into the room. Lance and him aren’t on bad terms like they used to be, Keith would even call them friends, but Lance looks… vulnerable. Keith isn’t sure if Lance would want him to see him this way.

Something draws him in anyway, like a rope tied to his ribs pulling him into the room. He drops down beside Lance and is a little surprised that Lance isn’t the least bit startled to see him.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Lance says into the otherwise quiet room. He doesn’t turn his head to look at Keith, only glances at him out of the corner of his eyes.

Keith only shakes his head in response, feeling like if he speaks he’ll shatter whatever it is that’s happening right now. It feels important.

“Me neither,” Lance goes on, casting his gaze back out to all the solar systems they haven’t saved yet. They’re countless. They’re a red tide hurtling towards the shore. Lance does a series of motions with his hand that spins the entire array around them. He zooms in on one particular solar system like he’s done it countless times and Keith wonders if maybe he’s not the only one who has trouble sleeping.

“When I was a kid, my mom had this old banged up telescope in the garage that we’d take out in the summer and set up on a hill by our house. She let all of us kids take turns looking through it and we’d play a game trying to tell the space stations apart from the stars.”

Keith is staring openly at Lance while he talks and he wonders for a moment if he is still dreaming. Something about this feels surreal. He wants to hold it in both his hands so he won’t forget it when he wakes up.  

“Anyway, the first time she let me look through it I wasn’t even old enough to aim it myself. She had to hold me up just so I could see.” Lance manipulates the holograms until a tiny version of Earth is cupped in his hands. The moon is orbiting around his fingers. “Mom says she had to pry me off the thing when the other kids wanted a turn. But when I finally let go and she set me down, do you know what I said?”

For the first time Lance looks at him fully and Keith feels like he’s been punched in the stomach.

“No,” he says, breathless.

“I said, ‘I want to go there’ and I pointed up at the sky.” Lance says it bitterly. Their thighs are so close together that it wouldn’t be anything at all for Keith to close the distance.

Lance pushes the Earth away and brings back the sea of red, but he does it slowly, like he’s measuring exactly how much distance is between the two.

“Now all I want to do is go home.” His voice is so, so quiet. “You probably think I’m a coward.”

Keith’s mouth is so dry that he can’t speak for a long moment and his throat clicks when he swallows. “I don’t think that.”

The look Lance gives him is searching, like he’s trying to figure out if Keith is lying to him, or maybe if he pities him. Neither is true and Keith wants to prove it, so he offers something of his own.

“Growing up, when I looked out into the night sky I didn’t think about just going to space.” Now it’s his turn not to look at Lance while he speaks. He’s still half convinced he’s dreaming because why else would he tell Lance this? He hasn’t told anybody this. “It wasn’t a place to go, it was more… a place to escape to.”

Lance is quiet. _A miracle_ , his brain supplies. Keith takes it as a cue to keep talking.    

“But it’s so—it’s so big out here. When I was little I thought it would be the perfect place to get lost in, but now it doesn’t feel like I’m lost. It feels like I’m being swallowed up and—“ He stops and looks at Lance finally. His eyes are wide and he’s staring back at Keith with something unreadable in his eyes.

“Forgotten,” he finally says in a whisper that he’s sure Lance barely hears.

All they do is look at each other for a while, their gazes locked. It feels like too much too fast. Keith wishes Lance would say something, but it’s as if they’re both trapped, unable to look away or speak. Lance sways just a fraction closer and now their thighs _are_ touching, a warm line of contact for Keith to ground himself in. He takes a shuddering breath and tears his eyes away. Lance finds the courage to speak.

“I didn’t know you thought like that,” he says. Keith wants to know where this is heading because it feels like they are moving very quickly towards something and it sits nameless and heavy between them.

“Yeah, well.” Keith shrugs and smirks over at Lance in the hopes that it will relieve some of the tension. “It’s not like I go spilling my guts to anyone that happens to pass by while I’m being moody.”

Lance pounces on the bait almost gratefully, smiling and playfully shoving at Keith’s shoulder. “Oh, we’ll see who spills whose guts. Come on, where’s your bayard, Keith? Hand it over, I’ve got guts to spill.” He’s poking and prodding at Keith’s chest and waist and Keith can’t stop the grin splitting across his face as he pushes Lance’s hands away.

“Like you could handle anything but that peashooter you call a weapon,” Keith shoots back and it’s exactly how they used to be except something fundamental has shifted just so, fitting into place like two puzzle pieces.

“Say that again when I’m picking off Galra soldiers and saving your sorry behind while you try and stick them with your toothpick of a sword.” There’s something in Lance’s voice that Keith doesn’t recognize until a few minutes later when they’ve moved on to grouping stars together and making up stories for new constellations.

It was fondness.

They stay there for a long time, maybe hours. Keith doesn’t know what time it is when Lance yawns loudly and tells him he’s going back to bed. Keith nods and he stands up too and they go to their rooms together. When Keith lays down again, his whole body feels lighter and he has no trouble at all falling back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm voltstron on tumblr.


End file.
